May 1.—A lovely day; spring is silently working her great Creator’s will, and arraying herself in all her glories. Meadow and woodland is brilliant with her gorgeous robes. There is a mellowness breathing in the air, which fills one as with an undefinable feeling of perfect tranquility. O, how welcome it comes to our troubled spirits! How bountifully God has showered his blessings on us, if we would only receive them!
Miss K., Mr. Moore, and myself rode out in Dr. Porter’s carriage, to see Mr. Thomas; when half-way there we met him going to town. He remarked that no doubt the church would suffer by the revolution which had shaken the land, and that he was prepared to earn his living, as he was then doing, by the sweat of his brow.
I do think it is disgraceful that a man with Mr. Thomas’s education and talents should not at least earn a living at his calling. His is no isolated case. I have heard of some of our clergymen in the cities, who were so bad off that they did not know from day to day where they would get the money to buy bread for their households.
“Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he hath given thee,” is a command to be obeyed as much as “Thou shalt have no other God besides me.” Indeed, to break the one is breaking the other, as what but making a god of money prevents us from giving according to the blessings of the Lord? When Christ sent his ministers into every city, he told them to carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes, for he said the laborer is worthy of his hire. And has not St. Paul said, “They who preach the gospel should live by the gospel.”
The Old and New Testament is filled with commands relating to the support of God’s word; can we expect to break them and go unpunished? Grant that there were no special command of this kind; does not common sense teach us that a clergyman and his family have mouths to feed, and bodies to be clothed, as well as other mortals? How are they to be provided for? “If they have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if they shall reap your worldly things?”
I do not know one who, were he to do any thing else for a living, who would not be well off. Their education fits them for any sphere in life; and were mere worldly profit their aim, they could easily gain that. But we can judge from this alone, if from nothing else, that they feel their calling is a much higher one than any of this world.
I do wish our people would only view this matter in the proper light. Let us suppose that the light of the gospel was shut out from us and our churches closed; no messenger of God to admonish and warn us to flee from the wrath to come; or with a voice of love bid us look up from this sorrow and sin-stricken world to a home eternal in the heavens, where all is peace and happiness; were all this taken away from us, where would we look for one ray of comfort to cheer us in this vale of tears? This is only one breach of the great command our people are guilty, as a nation, of breaking. “Thou shalt have none other gods but me.”
Let us treat God as a reality, not as we seemingly do—a chimera, whose holy name we have upon our lips, while our every act is at variance with what we profess.
Mr. T.’s house is situated in a lovely and romantic spot. There is a fine grove of trees in front of the house, of nature’s planting. I was rather hasty when I said there were no woods in this place; I had not seen one half of its beauty. Mrs. T. gave us a hearty welcome. She told us that many of General Lee’s men had passed there; some of them she had entertained. She said they seemed to take their defeat with a serious dignity, as if they were confident they had done their duty as the defenders of their country and cause; had failed, and were accepting the issue, like all do who feel they have “left no blot on their name,” and can “look proudly to heaven from the death-bed of fame.” It is only those who have sold their country and honor for their own selfish ends who have cause now to mourn.
It is now rumored that France has recognized us. We conversed about her coming to aid us at the eleventh hour. Mrs. T. and I said we would much rather it had been Great Britain; the others preferred France, as she had always shown herself our friend. I asked them in what way; for I had never seen or heard of any benefit we had received from her. True, she now and then gave us a few words of pity, to let us know we were remembered. She had an idea that some day we might be her neighbors, and it was wiser to make friends of us than foes. It is said she requested Great Britain to join her in recognizing us; but has she become so poor;
“Is she steeped so low
In poverty, crest-fallen, and palsied so,
That she must sit, much wroth, but timorous more;”
and knock at Britain’s doors, asking her aid to stay this fratricidal bloodshed? Has the land of the immortal Lafayette really sunk so far that she could not have raised her hand and helped us without the aid of other nations? Who was her ally when she helped the colonies? And, by the way, I do not suppose the colonies would ever have gained their independence without her. Since then we all know she has not sunk in power, but is much greater in all that constitutes true national greatness; I look on her present ruler as a wiser and a better one than his great uncle; for by his rule he has brought prosperity to his people, where his uncle brought the reverse.. A lady asked me why I took the part of England, as it had subjugated Scotland. To this I need scarcely give my answer— that not even the august Caesar, whose boast was he had conquered the world, had subjugated Scotland; and that, when he conquered England, he had to build a wall to protect his people from the “daring Caledonian.” To be sure she was under the yoke of England through treachery for awhile, but her brave sons, with their dauntless daring, threw off that yoke, and now the Scot
“Wanders as free as the wind o’er his mountain,
Save love’s willing fetters, the charms o’ his Jean.”
This is not the first time I have heard the southern people speak thus of France; although I have heard many of them say that the government of Great Britain is the best in the world, and wish we had such a one here.
I think the reason they lean so much to France is because she aided in the revolution of ’76. If she has indeed stepped in just now to help us (which seems at rather a strange time) it is because she wishes us to aid her in keeping Mexico.
Dr. Young is here with the medical stores. Dr. Porter and I tried to get him to give us some of the medicines he would not; he says they were intrusted to his keeping, and he will not give them to any one without orders. We proposed that he should give us a hint of where they were, and we could help ourselves; but even this he would not do.
We have received orders to have every thing packed to hand over to the United States Government, or some one—we do not exactly know who. I asked our post surgeon, Dr. Foster, if we could not keep some of the hospital stores, as we had no money (excepting dear old Confederate) to pay our way home, and we thought we could sell some of the hospital goods. Dr. F. said “No;” that it was like a dead man’s estate, and he, as trustee, was bound in honor to give it up. I must confess that this is a little more honesty than I think at all necessary. Many of our men have not even a change of clothes, and have not been paid for months; and here we are giving hundreds of suits to the United States Government. It seems to me by rights they belong to the men.
Dr. Foster is a high-toned, cultivated gentleman. He thinks we are conquered, and speaks calmly on the subject. He is from Tennessee, and intends going back; and if he finds he can not live there, will leave, he has traveled much on the continent of Europe.
The Tennesseeans, as a whole, seem to dislike President Johnson; but I heard a very intelligent one say he was a man of much more ability than he got credit for, and that he had a good deal of tact, and his aim would be to please the people; so from policy might make a very good ruler.
